The Atlantians
by EmmyH
Summary: They all have their little secrets. A short look at each of Atlantis' main characters. Please read and review!
1. The Leader

She finds it hard to admit, even to herself, but she doesn't always know what she's doing. In fact, most of the time she feels like she's making everything up. She thought, before they left Earth, that she was  
qualified, and _well_ qualified for this position. Now she sees how ludicrous that was. Logically, she knows that nobody could really have been prepared for this. But sometimes she feels it's just her—that if  
only it weren't _her, _everything would be fine. On some days she feels John or Rodney would be better. On some days she feels _anyone_ would be better. Those days, she sits in the commissary, nursing a cup of coffee until the early hours of the morning. Sometimes she's up so late that she's able to see the sunrise—sunrises have always been able to make her feel better.

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Hey, guys! Hope you're liking it so far. I know it's short... :) The fic will be in 6 parts. I've already got them all written... if anyone wants to beta the rest of it, please let me know! I'd love another opinion. 

Thanks! -Emilie :)


	2. The Soldier

He is as grateful as can be, about the Atlantians taking him in. He knows, no matter how good he was, he wouldn't have made it another seven years as a runner. So, yes, he's grateful. But it's hard for him—after all, he's been living on his own, out there in the wildest places in the galaxy, and even when he lived on Sateda, he generally hung out with people who didn't require table manners or etiquette or tact. He knows_ how _to be tactful: he wasn't a soldier all his life, he had a mother once. He knows how to use a knife and fork. Sateda was, after all, a civilized society. But sometimes he eats with his fingers, sometimes he doesn't want to go easy on people he spars with, and sometimes he gets tired of people's petty insecurities and says things that, as his mother would have told him, "are not prudent topics of conversation." Sometimes he doesn't care what his mother thinks. And sometimes he doesn't care what anyone thinks.

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I forgot to say this before--but please review! I love it when you review:) -Emilie :) 


	3. The Officer

He is better at math than Rodney—or faster, at least. He sits in Rodney's lab sometimes, watching. He completes equations in his head while Rodney's doing it on the whiteboard, and he usually finishes first. Rodney's found out a little: he knows that he cannot beat his soldier friend at 'prime, not-prime,' and once, when they were on a mission and there was no Zelenka for Rodney to feed on, the physicist handed him a tablet and said, "Check these equations." He knows that Rodney suspects he is as smart as Zelenka, perhaps, or one of the other scientist geeks. But Rodney doesn't know that he sometimes sees mistakes on the whiteboard, and when Rodney leaves to go to the bathroom, or berate a fellow scientist, he walks up to the whiteboard and carefully erases the wrong stuff, correcting and making sure it looks like it's Rodney's handwriting. He will never let anyone know. He tells himself that it's because Rodney would be heartbroken if "the flyboy" was better than him. Really, though, it's because until Rodney, nobody cared about how smart he was. He suspects Rodney feels an odd sort of pride in him, and that makes him feel guilty.

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Hi! This is one of my two favorite 'chapters' in this fic--my other favorite is the last one. Please review!

-Emilie :)


	4. The Protector

She hasn't had a family since her father died. Among her people, she has admirers, and friends, and—well, she _has _had lovers. Not many, but a few. But she doesn't have anyone she looks up to, like a parent, or bickers with, like a sibling, or takes care of, like a child. Not among the Athosians. She is their leader and that is all. Among the Atlantians, however, it's different. If she isn't a mother, a sister, or a daughter to any of the Athosians, she is all three and more to her teammates. She feels guilty that she didn't have these feelings for her own people. But, for better or for worse, these strange new people are her family now. She bickers with Rodney, and she obeys John when he tells them to _shut up already, kids. Do I have to separate you?_ She pesters Ronon: _you need to eat more, you're too skinny. _She missed having a family, and she's glad of one now. But she decided long ago that she would never have a spouse. And not even one of these wonderful people, all of whom she loves with every ounce of her being, can be a husband to her. She fears she is too strong to be a wife.

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Well? D'you like it? Hate it? Leave me a comment (Pleeeease!!!) 

Love, Emilie :)


	5. The Genius

Growing up, his life was strange, but not terrible. His father liked his sister better—he knows this, because his father would say, "Why can't you be more like Jeannie, Son?" and "Jeannie's smart_and_ strong." His father was a champion sprinter in college, and did tennis and basketball on the side. Jeannie followed in his footsteps, taking ballet and getting a black belt in tae kwon do, and was a brilliant scientist as well. But the son was not an athlete: he was smart, and nothing more. It wasn't enough for Dad, and then his father died and he didn't think about it for years and years. He tried not to, anyway. But here he is in Atlantis, and he's surrounded by all these strong, flexible people, and he respects them—he couldn't imagine, before coming here, respecting any people this much, let alone people who don't even know the basics of string theory. But he does respect them, and he feels jealous. His father would have loved to have a son like John. Despite all the respect he has for his team leader, he gets a bitter taste in his mouth when he thinks: _if you were like John, he would have loved you._

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Hello, everyone! This is the second to last one, so we should be done tomorrow. I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them! Also, happy halloween!!

-Emilie :)


	6. The Physician

He was never good at people before. That's why he became a geneticist. He liked people, yes, and wanted to help them, but… People made him nervous. He worries that he won't be able to cure them, or that he'll make a mistake, or they won't tell him what he needs to know, and they'll die because he wasn't thorough enough. He thinks it goes back to his days in med school. One of his rotations was in the pediatric oncology ward, and he saw all the children dying and families falling apart. He couldn't deal with it, so he threw himself into research. At least, he hoped, in genetics he'd be able to save some of them. If he worked hard enough he could find cures, and if he was in the lab he wouldn't have to watch people die, wouldn't have to watch their families and friends fall apart. He wouldn't have to listen to his own heart breaking. It was only when he got to Atlantis that he realized—a doctor's job is to piece together everything that breaks.

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Ok, guys--this is the last one. My favorite one, too. Tell me what you think!

-Emilie :)


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